in recent years, the Championship has actually been dominated by Știința Baia Mare and Rugby Timișoara. Domestic cup The Cupa României, which has been contested since 1914, is the main domestic cup in Romania that has also been contested by many teams across Romania along with the Romanian Rugby Championship. Like the Romanian championship, the Romanian cup had been dominated by Steaua București and Dinamo București, however recently, the Cup has been dominated by Știința Baia Mare and Rugby Timișoara. In the present, only teams in the CEC Bank SuperLiga can compete in the Romanian Cup since the gap between those teams and the ones in the Divizia Națională de Seniori, Romania`s second-tier domestic championship, is ever-increasing. European club tournaments In 1995, the first ever Heineken Cup match took place in Romania when Toulouse took on RCJ Farul Constanța. Since the inaugural season, Romanian teams have not taken part in the Heineken Cup. Instead of playing in the Heineken Cup, Romanian teams had qualified and took part in the European Challenge Cup nearly every single season since its inception apart from the 2000−01, 2003−04 seasons and 2004−05 seasons. where București Wolves took part in the competition, as an alternative to the team that would win the Romanian Rugby Championship. București Wolves was a team that was formed by the FRR as an alternative to the team that would win the Romanian Rugby Championship to play in European competitions, due to the decreasing levels of competitiveness from the Romanian teams in the Challenge Cup, and would consist of rugby union players playing in the domestic Romanian championship. They played in the European Shield in 2004−05, and have played in every single Challenge Cup between 2005 and 2014, when the team was ultimately dissolved in favour for the champions of Romania to represent Romania in European competitions instead. Popularity In the 1980s, the country reached its peak in the sport as the national team managed to defeat teams such as Wales, Scotland and France who all played in the Five Nations Championship. Not only that, the national team would become more and more popular among Romanians and as a result, the country had more than 12,000 players playing rugby and 110 rugby. clubs. Yet, after the fall of Communism, Romanian rugby union suffered a drastic financial shortfall. Although its popularity – which has never been comparable with that of football or handball